WEST DEPTFORD TWP. — With the weeks counting down to when DeHart’s Market would typically begin selling its produce, Gloucester County and PSE&G officials are still working on getting the permits and paperwork in order to allow the long-time farm stand to resume business.

William DeHart this week said he has been told by varying sources from the county and PSE&G that he will be able to open sometime between mid-May and June 1 — cutting it close to strawberry season.

“We’re cutting asparagus right now, which is fine because we can just put out a wagon and do a self-service thing, but the season’s come,” he said. “We’ll be doing strawberries in mid-May, and June 1 will be a little late.

“(PSE&G) is telling us the delay is with the county, and the county is saying the delay is with (PSE&G).”

In 1959, PSE&G acquired a utility easement from the DeHart family on the property for $5,000, giving the company exclusive rights to use the land if the need ever arose.

For more than four decades, the DeHarts farmed and sold their crops, never thinking anything of the easement.

However, according to PSE&G senior project manager Joseph Barton, the time has come to act on that deal.

The site plan for the renovations includes two monopole transmission towers to replace the current lattice transmission tower on DeHart’s property.

The new towers would directly sit on the land where DeHart’s previously stood since 1968.

PSE&G has agreed to build the family a new stand across the street from their original location, on land the company owns.

However, PSE&G’s property across the street is not qualified as farmland, meaning the company must first submit access plans and a site plan to the county planning board.

According to county spokeswoman Deb Sellitto, PSE&G has submitted its concept plan, which the planning board will review on Tuesday.

“Final approval can be granted by the planning board two weeks later if PSE&G can present their completed site plan,” said Sellitto in an email. “It takes about a week to build a new pole barn, and DeHart could be in the new location by June 1.

“In the interim, county and PSE&G are OK with DeHart operating from the existing site until new pole barn and driveway is ready.”

Douglas Anthony, PSE&G’s outreach and community manager for the project, said the company will present its site plan in time for the planning board’s approval.

“We’ve been in daily contact with the DeHarts, they’ve picked out their new pole barn and we’re installing water and sewer at the new site,” he said. “If it’s not completed in time, they’ll be able to set up a tent.

“The permits are in place with the county. It’s just waiting on county approval.”